Timeline set for Travis Head's World Cup return

Head, who was named in the 15-member World Cup squad despite copping a fracture to his left hand during the South Africa series, has recovered faster than expected.

The left-hander had the protective splint removed from his hand late last week and since then has been active in the nets.

According to reports on cricket.com.au, Head has faced more throw downs in the practice nets and will fly out to India this Thursday.

He'll be unavailable still for the clash against Pakistan, Australia's fourth game of the tournament, in Bengaluru, but could potentially return for the Netherlands game in Delhi on October 25.

"It's coming along well, and probably better than we hoped," Head told cricket.com.au.

"When we decided not to go with surgery, which would have meant a 10-week recovery, we were told it would be minimum six weeks with the splint before we could look at playing again.

"Going by that plan, the Netherlands game will be just under six weeks from impact which is a pretty aggressive date so everything would have to go perfectly from here to make that deadline.

"But we'll just see how it progresses over the next few days and I'm excited by the prospect of joining the boys over there later in the week.

Head's return will be timely for the Aussies, who are on a four-match losing streak, two of them coming in this year's edition, at the Cricket World Cup.

With two losses in two games and Mitchell Marsh making scores of 0 and 7 from Head's position at the top, the Aussies will be glad to have the left-hander back partnering David Warner.

Head's ODI record at the top of the order is mind-blowing with him averaging over 50 and scoring at a rate of 112.35 as opener in the format.